Sunday, April 24, 2011

Colleges worry about always-plugged-in students - The Boston Globe

Excerpt from a stark snapshot

But, it turned out, multitaskers are not good at switching tasks orignoring irrelevant information. They also don’t write as well and use simpler sentences, said Nass, author of “The Man Who Lied to His Laptop’’ and who has examined the writing samples of Stanford freshmen. Such behaviors have very real consequences for the wiring of the young brain.

“The scarier part is that even when they stop multitasking, their brains still don’t work properly,’’ Nass said. “Basically, they just don’t pay attention well. Limiting multitasking in the classroom is not sufficient. People have to limit it when they’re alone, too.’’